On-Demand Arrives at Electrolux

IBM has signed on long-time client The Electrolux Group
for a new outsourcing pact that also includes a significant portion of
computing services served up “on-demand” for the maker of outdoor and indoor
appliances.

Under terms of the seven-year contract, IBM is expected to help manage
the Stockholm-based Electrolux’s entire European desktop environment. The
company said that would include support for IBM’s collaboration application
Lotus Notes, support for administration and helpdesk service.

Electrolux, perhaps best known for its popular vacuum cleaners, plans to
use a variable pricing model as part of the on-demand contract, which means
Electrolux will pay IBM a per user fee for each desktop that deploys the
services from IBM. The companies said the user base is likely to fluctuate
between 13,000 and 19,000 desktops.

IBM is expected to help introduce a more distributed computing
architecture across Electrolux’s PC environment in order to help introduce
improved support for local area networks and networking among smaller
workgroups. The companies said they would be using Tivoli as part of the
enterprise management line of tools.

For its part, Electrolux’s internal IT service provider, Electrolux IT
Solutions, said it would manage the transition to the new IBM contract and
keep track of the agreement going forward. As is customary in outsourcing
contracts, Electrolux IT employees, in this case more than one hundred,
along with some of the company’s hardware assets will transfer to IBM.

No financial details of the contract, which starts in August, were
released.